Mark Plesent, Producing Artistic Director

Laura Carbonell Smith, Managing Director

Lisa Ramirez, Artistic Associate

Dina Vovsi, Literary Associate/ Directors Salon Co-curator

Joe Roland, TheaterWorks! Arts Instructor

"Theater to me is an extraordinary opportunity for us to engage with each other and with ideas. We spend too much of our lives alone, in front of screens of one kind or another. I have made it my mission to bring the primitive, exhilarating experience of live theater to as many as people as possible." -- Mark Plesent

Staff

Mark Plesent, Producing Artistic Director

Mark has been associated with Working Theater in since 1989.  In 1996 he was named Producing Director and in 2010 he became Producing Artistic Director.   He has produced over 30 plays for the Theater including Michael Henry Brown’s Ascension Day, Ed Belling’s A Drop in the Bucket (which he also directed), and the Drama Desk Award-winning Tabletop, among many others. In his current capacity, Mark is responsible for the re-institution of the Company’s commissioning program resulting in new plays by Linda Faigao-Hall, OyamO, Jason Grote, Lisa Ramirez, Manuel Borras and Ed Cardona Jr. 

Mark has also worked as the Development Director for Jennifer Muller/The Works and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company.  Prior to working for the arts organizations mentioned above, Mark produced and/or directed over 15 independent theatre and performance art projects including Populace, a performance on the IRT #1 train from Chambers Street to 125th street involving 22 directors and over 200 actors. Mark serves on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York, an organization serving over 300 member theaters. Mark graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater.

Laura Carbonell Smith, Managing DirectorLaura began her association with Working Theater as an intern in 2003 while attending NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. After graduating with a BFA in Acting in 2005, she was hired part time as the company's Director of Special Events. She continues to work in the creative side of the theatre world as an actor and singer while overseeing group sales, benefit planning and marketing for the Working Theater.

Lisa Ramirez, Artistic Associate

Originally from San Francisco, Lisa performed at many Bay Area Theatres including The Magic Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Marin Theatre Company, Actor’s Theatre of San Francisco, and Intersection for the Arts. She received 3 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards and a Dramalogue Award for her work as an actor. In addition to acting, Lisa was the Literary Director for Brava for Women in the Arts.

In New York, Lisa has performed at the Roundabout Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Tectonic Theatre, 3 Legged Dog, the Clurman Theatre, Intar, HERE Arts Center, The Ontological-Hysteric Theatre, and New York Theatre Workshop. She was a Playwright in Residence with New York Theatre Workshop at Dartmouth College and is a Usual Suspect. In the spring of 2009, Working Theater gave EXIT CUCKOO (nanny in motherland) its World Premiere at the Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row. (Colman Domingo directed). Lisa wrote and performed in the dance theatre piece ART OF MEMORY at 3-Legged Dog in New York. ART OF MEMORY was collaboration with Company SoGoNo. (Calamoneri conceived and directed). Lisa collaborated with the Foundry Theatre and Domestic Workers United to create a dance/theatre piece called INVISIBLE WOMEN-RISE. Ten domestic workers performed the piece at the historic Riverside Church in New York. (Lisa directed). She was recently was asked to be a contributing playwright to the new play IN MOTHER WORDS (Co conceived by Susan Rose and Joan Stein. Directed by Lisa Peterson). Currently Lisa is working on a new play about the mostly Latina/immigrant women who live and work in Sullivan County, NY’s poultry plants. To the Bone is a commission from the Working Theater.

Dina Vovsi, Literary Associate
Dina Vovsi joined Working Theater in 2009 as an intern and line produced numerous readings and events throughout the 25th Anniversary Season.  Along with her literary duties, Dina is a co-founder and co-curator of the Working Theater Directors Salon, now in its third year.  Dina freelances as a director, actor, and production designer.  New York directing credits include All the Windows On Alcatraz (FringeNYC '11), Up and Down (Complete Theatre Company, Short Play Lab), and assistant directing a workshop of OyamO's White Hot Black Spice (New Dramatists).  She has worked as a Producing Associate at Page 73 Productions and is a NYC Associate of the Prison Creative Arts Project.  Graduate of the University of Michigan with a dual degree in Theatre and English.

Joe Roland, Arts Instructor, TheaterWorks!

An actor and a playwright, Joe Roland is a graduate of the New Actors Workshop where he studied with George Morrison, Mike Nichols and Paul Sills. On the Line, his play about the struggles of three working class friends, has been read at Lincoln Center and received a workshop reading from The Public Theater. The play was produced Off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York. He has worked in television and film, including Charlie Wilsons War, and was last seen on Broadway in The Country Girl. In addition to his career in the theater, for the last several years Mr. Roland has been dedicated to adult education. Since 2005 he has been teaching a GED course at  The Thomas Shortman Training Fund which provides training for eligible members of 32BJ.